Phoenix Rising
by Prime627
Summary: A sparkling is saved in the dawn of the world and bottled up as an experiment. But the technology is limited, and the medic goes insane over his project. He dies, and in his absence, she gathers dust in a box of memories Optimus would rather forget. Until he goes through them again and gives her to Starscream, former scientist. So begins the rise of Phoenix.
1. Chapter 1

_The war drags on. Everyone is getting tired and weary, even Optimus. He sometimes snaps at his warriors, but immediately apologizes after and rubs his helm. Always in the same spot. Probably suffering from a helm ache. I'm a medic. I notice these things._

 _I was also able to notice a pregnancy among the ranks before she could. Before anyone could. In my excitement over a new sparkling, a neglected to tell anyone before...it happened._

 _She was determined to fill out her duties of the day. She had to protect Alpha Post 2, and the Decepticons were invading. She fought bravely. Three others went down before I was called. When I got there, I watched her take a shot to the spark. She fell in my arms and I laid her down. She wasn't going to make it._

 _It was a sloppy operation, but after locating her gestation tank and noting its bulging sides, I slit it open and out spilled the baby, underdeveloped and unable to live without its mother._

 _Optimus screamed at me to get down. One of the Seekers was opening fire down at me, even though I clearly bore the medics' mark. I was not to be shot at or harmed, said the agreement between Prime and warlord. Seekers were not the greatest at following instructions._

 _I laid flat, hiding the infant in my servos I pressed against my chest. Even though I did my best to protect her, grit and dirt peppered her thin protoform._

 _Optimus continued to scream at me. He jerked me to my feet and stared down at the sparkling. He narrowed his optics, but he trusted me. He let me keep it._

 _This journal will no longer focus on the war, but rather my experiment. If I can get this sparkling to live...if I can get it to walk and speak and fight...we may have solved our low rank problem._

 _I could be a hero._

 _I keep it in a vase of Energon. I test it, do fifty percent changes, and I watch it twitch, just subtly. I do not know how well it develops. Every day, it seems as though nothing changes, even as days turn to weeks. The only notable change is that her winglets are now wings. Full-fledged Seeker wings, if underdeveloped. Powerglide confirmed my suspicion. Now, Seekerlings take less time to produce. When they are born, they actually are rather underdeveloped. But this sparkling defies everything. She has not grown even an inch and Seekerlings are dropping left and right only to die where they lay, still blue from being in their carrier._

 _It's not fair. What am I doing wrong?_

 _It has now been years since I found the sparkling. No change. Optimus takes her into his office every so often to gaze at her and to talk to her, even though her audios are premature. He doesn't understand. No one understands. She should never have been born. I should have left her. Now she is cursed to lay in that vase for the rest of time, never to walk, never to speak, never to experience life._

 _This is the sparkling Primus forgot._

 _I will abandon her to Optimus in the hopes that she passes quietly._

 **\- Excerpts taken from the Journal of Sketch, presumed dead at the Iacon mental institute. No other records of the sparkling exist, and there is no body of it to be found. These are quite possibly ravings of a mad man and should not be taken seriously**

 **~From the Author~**

Hey, guys! Guess you weren't expecting to see me! Well, here's my new story, I hope you like it. Still got some writer's block, but it's leaving and I'm getting really excited to introduce a new OC. She's just a baby, so don't frighten her. ;) Don't hate me, just hate my choices 3 Thanks for sticking around. I hope to have another chapter up real soon. Prime627 back and out for tonight /only/.


	2. Chapter 2

It is after the war. The world is much different. The High Council, after the members died, was replaced. Now it is known as the New Council, and led by Halogen's son, a mech who can't see the troubles of the world because his nose is too far in the air. He "intends" to fix the problems and soothe the inhabitants, but in doing that, he made Primes look like pawns of the High Council and now Rodimus is their pawn.

When Iacon and Kaon brought forward fears of Quintessons returning, Astatine (son of Halogen) ordered that Watchtowers be built in both cities, allowing the two Keepers to each see half of the world. It was perfect, but the Keepers were still to be selected.

And Astatine knew _exactly_ who to pick.

After the war, Optimus and Megatron bonded, slowly and tentatively, until they were back to close friends. They both aged. The Matrix abandoned Optimus after many years and instead speaks to Rodimus. The Dark Energon that used to keep Megatron in an "immortal" state now dropped him heavily after the last drop was processed out of his body. The years caught up to Optimus and the Dark Energon took its toll on Megatron.

They were hardly recognized. Astatine had changed their view of Primes when he came to rule in the New Council. Primes were once viewed as a step below Primus, right up with the Thirteen. But Astatine has warped that view, changing it so that the Primes were actually dirt-level, and the New Council spoke regularly with Primus. That being done, Optimus was no longer stopped on the streets. They brushed by him, until the memories of what he had done faded almost completely...

Megatron was no longer remembered, but Megatronus was thought fondly of, spoken fondly of. The question "whatever happened to him" when spoken within audio-shot of the mech set the former gladiator's denta on edge. Optimus repeatedly held him back from beating the mech to death with his cane and would drag him out, hot tears rolling down the silver mech's face.

"I'm nothing, Optimus. I'm not scary anymore. No one remembers us. All our friends are dead!"

That wasn't quite true. Though most of the Autobots died and some of the Decepticons, a handful remained, just in hiding. They were not very much liked due to the New Council.

Astatine, discovering that the Prime and the warlord may put his position as highest being in jeopardy, placed them both as Keepers, saying it was a great honor, but when he gave them the keys to the towers, he smiled and whispered in their audios.

"Let the dust cover you. Let the sun no longer grace your plating. Forget your worth and rust in piece."

And so it happened. Optimus' memories became cheap and grey. Questionable. Megatron's mind fell apart, as did his vision. Both use canes to manuever around the towers. What would take healthy, strong mechs moments to do, it took Prime several long hours, more for Megatron as he almost always forgot his purpose, but Prime left notes around the tower, looking out for his friend.

But the mechs weren't completely forgotten. They had friends, ones that were younger, and some that didn't have a Matrix that elongated their lives or Dark Energon that brought them up so high only to drop them.

A Seeker's loyalty is forever, and the Matrix could not successfully guide a young mech without help. Especially the young mech it chose as the next Prime.

He always needed help.

 **oooo**

Starscream ran down the streets of Iacon, late. His cape flapped in the wind, purple and soft where his claws gripped it. He skirted around slow-moving traffic and wound through fast-moving walkers heading to work. His goal was the Iacon Watchtower. And he was late. Terribly late.

He had gotten caught up in an experiment of his with Skyfire. It involved making Energon more effecient, and it was time consuming and involving. So involving, that when Starscream checked his chronometer, he dashed out of the lab and had just enough time to stop and grab his cape...or rather, an Elite stopped him and snapped it around his neck while he bounced and danced in place.

"Late, late, late, late," Starscream chanted as he stopped in front of the Watchtower. Dust gathered on the door and doorway, but the knob was clean. No doubt Rodimus had a fit when he saw the dust on his servo.

He opened the door and walked in.

"You call that balancing? That is a disgrace!"

Rodimus stood on a pole in the center of the Watchtower's first floor. Nothing held it steady. How Rodimus got up there was a mystery. He stood on one pede, a war dummy in one servo that weighed as much as a small Cybertronian (and had to have been in order for it to perform its duty of readying troops that had to carry supplies and the dead and the wounded). How this made a mech a Prime was unclear to the Seeker. But that is why the Matrix didn't pick Starscream.

It picked his mate.

Optimus leaned into his cane a little more than he did last time, but his optics lit up the same way they did when he saw Starscream last. "Starscream. Just in time. I was keeping Rodimus busy."

Starscream hugged him lightly, surprised once again how strong the mech still was. Even though his leg crippled him and kept him from performing duties as he used to, he was still very strong and very smart. It was Megatron that the Seeker worried about. "I was worried you wouldn't have anything to do while you waited on me."

"I'll always have something for the brat to do," he whispered, smirking.

Starscream looked back at his mate. A light quiver formed in his leg and he wobbled. "Mm. Looks like he's slacking."

"Yes, he tends to do that. He spends too much time showing off!"

"I'm balancing!"

"My mother can balance better than you, and she's dead!"

Rodimus swallowed hard. Starscream remembered he had a fear of heights. Could this be an exercise to get him unafraid of them? Possibly, or it was entertainment to Optimus. "You want to see balancing? I can balance." He started to switch pedes, tossing the dummy up into the air and catching in the opposite servo. He did this while Starscream and Optimus returned to talking.

"How has the Prince of Vos been?"

"Busy. How about you?"

"Rusting quietly. Astatine should be pleased."

"He's never pleased."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Starscream and Optimus looked just in time to see Rodimus hit the ground. The pole fell over, and soon fell the dummy beside him. Optimus' optics widened.

"Oh, no." He limped over as fast as he could and fell to his knees, bent over the fallen victim. "Francine..." He lifted the dummy.

Rodimus groaned and he looked at the Prime, then saw Starscream run over to also see if the dummy was okay. "Why are you guys never worried about me? My wrist is broken." He flapped his servo, framework screeching as two broken pieces ground together.

Optimus snorted. "Because the Matrix will fix you up before the medics could even look at you. You'll be fine."

"Whew." Rodimus flopped back down, cradling his wrist.

Starscream knelt by his helm and smiled, stroking his helm. "Have fun up there?"

"I never want to do that again."

"Mm." He lowered a kiss onto his mouth. "Shame. I kind of liked looking up at you. It was a nice change of view."

Rodimus snorted and rolled over. "So the Matrix didn't make me six feet taller, but you don't have to rub my shortness into my face."

"If you were taller, I wouldn't have to."

"Ha-ha..."

Optimus set the dummy on a chair outside his office. "Starscream. I have something you may be interested in."

Rodimus kissed his mate before continuing to lay on the floor. "Go on. I'll be okay."

Starscream purred down at his flashy mate and he got up, walking after Optimus. "Sure, Prime. What is it?"

Optimus shut the door behind him. "It's a surprise."

 **ooo**

The office was decorated with awards and medals, all old. The latest one was a century old, and it was given by Halogen to Optimus before he died. It was the only thing not dusty. On shelves stood models and tiny statues of war heroes, including a servo-crafted one of a femme with missing digits. Fae. Starscream smiled at it and picked it up.

"Not that." Optimus had his back to him, but he must have known the statue of the old femme would attract Starscream, since they worked together briefly in Swerve's bar in Burning Treads. He knelt and brought out a crushed box. He set it on his crowded desk and opened it. "I was going through memories of the war, thought you might be interested in something of mine. It was a friend's experiment. People don't really know about him, and I can barely remember his name or what he looked like...but..."

Starscream watched Optimus lift out an old vase. It was clear, and filled with Energon. Murky, brownish-blue Energon. Starscream raised an optic ridge.

"Just wait. She still kicks. Such a strong little thing, she is..."

As Starscream watched, a pale pede kicked out and a servo shot forward. The Seeker's optics widened, and then even further when Optimus turned the vase around.

Scrunched up, underdeveloped and pale white with splashes of red, sat a Seekerling. Her optics were forming, film over them to protect them while they developed. She absently sucked on one servo, just-formed digits curling and uncurling on the other servo.

"How...?"

"The mother was shot and killed in battle. My friend collected her into a vase he had in his subspace and she's been like that ever since, but you can see a few things are new, like her little digits. She is over six million years old, and just a baby. Since I can't care for her..."

Starscream's claws shot out and wrapped around the vase, pulling it to his chest. "I'll take her."

"I thought you would."

 **ooo**

Back at the palace, in the basement under the open living space, Starscream stood in his lab with Skyfire. He set out machines and watched his friend stare at the Seekerling.

"Wow..."

"Yeah." Starscream poured out some of the Energon, cupping the sparkling's helm to keep her from spilling out.

"But how? The connection between her and her carrier is broken. There is no way she is getting nourishment. She should have died..."

"She's a miracle." He poured in more Energon, watching her kicking grow. "I plan to be a mentor of sorts...who knows what she could become."

"Astatine won't like this."

"Well. We just won't tell him then."

Skyfire smirked. "Just like in the war. Keeping secrets from everybody and anybody."

Starscream watched his friend put a stimulator in the Energon and when the machine turned on, there was a pleasant hum. The Seekerling kicked more frequently, as if waking up from a dream. "Not _everybody._ I'll need some help."

"From who?"

"A medic I know. She'll help us, I know."

"She'll drive us up the wall if I think I know the femme you're talking about."

"She's not that bad."

"She calls you _vulture._ "

Starscream shrugged.

"I can't believe you."

But Starscream was more caught up in his thoughts of a pretty red and white Seekerling trailing his heels, asking him questions, mirroring him in every way...he had always wanted sparklings.

Now was his chance.

He could be a hero to someone again.


	3. Chapter 3

Starscream was right. The femme was eager to help. After he set everything up with the Seekerling and finding that she required a little jolt of electricity to her spark to keep her development going, he sat down and opened his datapad. He found her frequency and logged in, waiting for her face to fill the screen.

Almost immediately, the screen changed to show a femme rubbing grease off her servos. Her armor was purple and black, her optics purple and narrowed as she read the incoming call notification. She set the rag down and sat down in front of the datapad.

 _"Not the mech I was expecting. What's up, vulture?"_

Starscream explained to her what was going on, stopping when a sharp rebuke from a mech interrupted her concentration.

 _"Nightshade! Get your helm out of the datapad and get back to work!"_

"I'll talk quickly," Starscream promised. "I need your help, simply put."

 _"I knew you couldn't stay away. Hold on. Let me replace the engine in this Star Charter and I'll slip away."_

"You're going to get fired one of these days."

 _"Eh. When people don't like you, you get used to it."_

 **ooo**

Nightshade kept her promise. She showed up in the basement, Elites on her back and trying to work cuffs on her wrists before Starscream dismissed them. "Could have told your pithounds that I was friendly."

"Wouldn't have been as entertaining."

"Evil."

Rodimus was visibly ruffled by her presence, his optics narrowed. Even though the war was over, the young mech held grudges. He knew every mech and femme that ever wronged him and he didn't let hem get close. He pricked his audios every time he heard their name spoken and he quietly kept tabs on all of them in a little notebook Starscream often flipped through when he couldn't sleep. He loved his mate, but it was getting too much for him. Who ever thought that the _Autobot_ in the relationship would have trust issues?

"Where is the brat, anyway?" Nightshade needed no directing, shaking Starscream from his thoughts. She lifted the vase and frowned. "I wouldn't put the tiniest organism in this thing. How long has she been in here?"

"Since the beginning of the war, apparently." He watched her carefully transfer the sparkling into a tub, filling it with more Energon to cover the entire sparkling. "I thought that a team of scientists and medics could get her walking among us."

"And of all the medics, you invited me to be apart of your project. I'm touched, honestly." She sat on the counter, watching the tub of Energon. "Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything we can do except wait. She'll probably develop faster now, but not excessively."

Starscream sighed, nodding. He suspected as much. He watched Skyfire tape the node that charged the sparkling's spark to her chest.

"In case she thrashes and kicks it out of the Energon."

Starscream nodded and he walked around to be with his mate, nuzzling his cheek. "Now that the project seems to be at a standstill, what do we do?"

Skyfire rocked back on his heels, shrugging. "I have a meeting I should get to with Perceptor."

"You can leave. If I have any questions, I'll comm you."

The larger mech nodded and he walked out of the lab, leaving the others to stare at each other awkwardly.

Rodimus broke the silence. "So...Starscream, do we have anything planned this evening?"

A thought that the Seeker had kicked around in his helm resurfaced. "Actually, I thought about taking Megatron and Optimus out to dinner. I thought that a little socialization wouldn't hurt and could actually help Megatron."

Rodimus shot Nightshade a look. "And will we have company?"

She shook her helm. "Nope. I have odd jobs to do, and Lockdown wants me to take down a bounty. Apparently he's getting heat and he thinks he's too old to do anything. It doesn't help he has sparklings. Drift doesn't want to lose his mate."

"Lockdown's too good to die, though," Rodimus said. He had been a huge fan of the Pits and he has currently been into bountyhunters. "He had Prime at the end of his ropes, so you know he's good. Why does he need _you_?"

"Because I'm young and if I die, I won't leave a giant rip in people's lives." Her optics narrow. "Plus he knows I won't skimp him on credits. He already hired three others to help him, and two gave him a fraction of what they agreed on and the third never came back...plus, I'm their babysitter. They trust me."

Optics were drawn to the tub when the sparkling started thrashing in a dream. Energon spattered onto Nightshade's armor, and when Rodimus opened his mouth to laugh, some landed on his glossa. Starscream covered his mouth with his talons as he laughed. The flashy mech rubbed at his glossa with his digits and he whimpered.

"Oh, calm down. It's just Energon."

"You don't know what she's done in that!"

Beeping drew optics to Nightshade, who checked her wrist where calendar alerts read out to her. "I gotta go. Babysitting in Burning Treads and then in Tyger Pax."

"How do peope hire you?" Rodimus narrowed his optics.

"I beg and plead and bat my optic lids."

Starscream elbowed him. "See you later, Nightshade."

When she left, Rodimus hopped onto the counter and drew his mate between his thighs, hugging his neck and hiding his face in his neck. "I don't like her."

"I couldn't tell."

"She's an ex-Con."

"Uh-huh...so you don't like ex-Cons."

"I didn't say that. I just said I didn't trust them."

"Wow, Rodimus. I'm touched."

"Not you, I mean...ughhhh! It's all so weird now..." He rested his chin on his shoulder and he sighed against his audio.

"I understand. But this calm could allow us to make new allies."

"You have all the allies you need. If you lift a servo, you have half the world waiting for a command. You have the Elites, the Seekers, the Amalgami..."

"Amalgami as well? Mm. Might have to put those to good use."

"...and assassins and bountyhunters..."

"Interesting..."

Rodimus nuzzled him lightly, groaning. "Why does she have to be involved?"

"Nightshade?"

"She calls you a vulture."

"There's a reason for everything she does."

"Sometimes they don't make much sense...why is she so nice now?"

Starscream sighed and he closed his optics. He remembered how during the war, Megatron put Seekers through the pits. He needed killers, so he bred them and trained them specially, making them stronger and stronger and more and more deadly. The end products were dark-colored Seekers with sharp claws that could cut through metal like they passed through water. But he had a few surprises, starting with the Royal trine, Starscream and his brothers. He trained them and used them as much as he could. When he finished, Starscream and the others had lost weight and looked spindly and strutted around on heels made to keep their peds out of spilt Energon. When Nightshade came, Starscream was extremely skinny and he was standing beside Megatron. To a young femme just coming to the Decepticons, he looked like a vulture compared to the fat warlord.

"Seekers aren't biologically evil. It depends on how they grew up and where. We grew up in crates packed into a single room and fed via tubes leaking rancid Energon. Our carriers were bred repeatedly. They were always pregnant and always tired...except my carrier...she died after her first trine. We have no half-siblings or siblings. Our sire wasn't a stud Seeker."

Rodimus sighed and hugged him closer. "Should we go get Megatron and Optimus? I'm getting hungry."

"Sure." Starscream pulled away, but when he looked at the mech, he saw something swimming in his optics. "What else is on your mind?"

He sighed and shook his helm. "She looks at you like you were her sky, and she looks at me like I'm the luckiest mech in the world."

Starscream shrugged with a shoulder. "Maybe because you are the luckiest mech in the world." He kissed him softly, purring. "I know I am." When he drew away, he smirked. "Now get going. We're going to be late."

"We don't even have an appointment!"


End file.
